Representative for Bulgaria: Ivan Stoyanov

Dear friends,

my name is Ivan, I come from Bulgaria and I live in the town of Varna. I graduated ecology and environmental sciences in 1998, I’ve got master degree. Then I worked for an environmental NGO.

Since the end of March 2009 I’ve been interested in animal therapy and I’ve made contacts with different organizations working on this sphere. My own website www.BestFellows.com is about pets and useful information about them. This year I was invited by Mr. Axel Linke, the Director of Onmega Dolphin Therapy and Activity Center in Antalya, Turkey, to visit him and to get acquainted at close and in details with the dolphin therapy.

So, in the beginning of July this year I visited Mr. Linke and stayed with him in his center about 10 days. I was a witness of amazing miracles. The condition of difficult movable children approved and they began making some motions easier owing to the combination of dolphin therapy, hippo therapy, physiotherapy and cranio sacral therapy. But my biggest impression was the following case:

During my stay I was introduced to the family of a 14 years old autistic boy and watched his treatment in the Dolphin Therapy Center. In the beginning the boy didn’t talk and didn’t pay attention to anyone, even to his parents – autistics are closed in their own world. The curative program of the boy was swimming with dolphins and horse riding (hippo therapy) into a nearby ranch. First days he was afraid of the dolphins, often he screamed with fear if a dolphin came near the platform where he was sitting. Little by little his fear disappeared and the boy started fondling the dolphins and steeping his legs into the pool. Last days of the therapy the boy showing no fear and was swimming with the dolphins in assistance of the therapist of course.

Hippo therapy included fondling and combing of a horse in the beginning and after that horse riding. In the beginning of horse riding the trainer was handling the headstall of the horse, then he was handling the horse for the bridle and at last the boy was riding himself and the trainer was handling the horse on a very long rope.

I was really amazed when at the end of the therapy the boy started embracing and kissing his parents and talked a few words even to a stranger like me.

So, Mr. Linke nominated me to be the general representative of Onmega Dolphin Therapy and Activity Center for Bulgaria. Dear friends, visit our website www.dolphin-therapy.org in your mother language and if you have any questions, contact your local representative. If anybody has any questions in Bulgarian I’ll be happy to answer.

Best regards,
Ivan Stoyanov